SPEAKERS can access dozens of free articles, download special reports, watch videos, listen to audios, and learn about my speaking schools, public dates, and seminars. More and more speech coaching clients, sales training clients, and keynote speaking clients are check my references on the website and contact me by email.

CLIENTS can learn about topics and get descriptions for their convention brochures, as well as bios, introductions, photos, and preprogram questionnaires. They can even confirm their own engagement and e-mail or fax me. Their entire committee can preview various videos at their own desk top. With EPRO, my calendar is online and speakers' bureaus can place holds on specific dates.

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Technology tools used and recommended by Fripp include: Premium Global Communicator™ The Global Communicator™ allows people to communicate over the Internet via voice chat, text chat and synchronized browsing. This unique technology provides the ability to communicate and share ideas from anywhere in the world. It can be used for private conversations or large seminars. The possibilities are endless! Click here for more information on Global Communicator™. eSpeakers - eVentPRO eVentPRO is a software tool written specifically for professional speakers. eVentPRO provides complete management of holds and solds, as well as the hundreds of details (travel, etc.) that go with each event. eVentPRO even syncs with PDAs. Full-featured management tool tracks hold through sold and beyond Organizes all the details of confirmed events, including travel, fees, names & numbers, much more Includes you in SpeakerTRACKS that go to thousands of meeting planners Allows bureaus to check your availability in real-time, and place holds via the Internet. A free 30-day trial is available. Click here for more information on eSpeakers and eVent PRO. Any of Fripp's website visitors or seminar attendees are welcome to talk to Joe Heaps about how they too can benefit from eSpeakers. Contact Joe Heaps: jheaps@espeakers.com, toll free 888-377-3214. Tom Antion's Electronic Marketing Butt Camp For speakers, trainers, consultants... if you want to learn how to market and sell products and services while sitting at home, attend Tom Antion's Electronic Marketing Butt Camp. Tom is no techie, but he has discovered the way to use his computer to keep money and speaking engagements rolling in while he sits at home with his feet up. Click here for more information on Tom Antion's Electronic Marketing Butt Camp. Click here for more information on Tom Antion's Electronic Marketing Butt Camp. GoldMine® GoldMine is a flexible, powerful, contact management system that helps improve sales processes and shorten sales cycles by untangling disorganized contact information, correcting inefficiencies, and automating time-consuming administrative tasks so you can focus on building your client relationships. For more information on GoldMine® click here. Any of Fripp's website visitors or seminar attendees are welcome to talk to Chuck Wasekanes about how they can improve their business with GoldMine. Contact Chuck Wasekanes: chuck@acmesfa.com or 650-345-9289 Savicom Patricia Fripp uses Savicom to send out her content-rich electronic newsletters: SpeakerFrippNews and FrippNews. Provides a remarkably easy and cost-effective solution for your online newsletter publishing. A user-friendly interface makes website integration, mailing list management, subscription and unsubscription, and message sending and archiving simple and easy. A free trial version of the PMG Standard plan is available. Click here for more information on Savicom.

Recently, I interviewed Jeff Davidson, a prolific author and successful speaker for North Carolina. Here is what Jeff told me about running a high-tech speaking business:

JEFF DAVIDSON'S ADVICE

Will the Internet change everything in speaking? Maybe not, but the Internet is already fundamentally altering all business aspects of the meeting industry.

So much is shifting so quickly. Typical speakers get up each morning, feeling as if they will never keep pace with technology developments, especially those affecting the meeting industry. Yet, even solo speakers with no staff can maintain a firm handle on where to concentrate their time and attention if they keep up with technology.

Here are four areas to be aware of:

1. Prepare to handle all paperwork on the web.

All the aspects of meeting planning that used to be done by mail can and will be transferred to the web. Given that this reality is happening faster than anyone could have supposed just a few years ago, speakers now need to have all their business materials web-ready. This means converting all your pre-speech materials (such as contracts, agreement forms, presentation questionnaires, survey forms, product-ordering information, room diagrams, and so on) into PDF format so that any form can be sent to a meeting planner quickly and easily in the form of an e-mail attachment.

Fortunately, conversion to PDF format is a painless process once the proper software is installed. Adobe Systems is the leader in this area. You can gather all the information you need at www.adobe.com.

2. Prepare documents in dual formats.

Prepare all speech-related materials in dual format, both on a web site for downloading and as files that can be attached to e-mails. From now on, whatever you would prepare for an on-site audience needs to be recast for delivery over the Internet and for a net audience. If you already use Corel Presentations, PowerPoint, or other online slideshow software, you are ahead of the game. They readily lend themselves to usage over the Internet.

Extend the process further by making sure your professional photos, handouts, or "participant materials" as I like to call them -- charts, graphs, exhibits, article reprints, and other paraphernalia used in front of a live group -- can be easily conveyed over the net.

3. Master long-distance techniques.

Become adept at long-distance learning techniques. Patricia Fripp and I belong to an organization of 40 business experts who share their expertise with clients via live programs over the Internet. Our program, called MentorU (www.MentorU.com), uses interactive technology, hosted by Placewhere.com, to deliver real-time professional training to corporations and organizations throughout the world. Corporations may sign up 1 to 1,000 people and view programs, either as initially scheduled, or as replays contained in the MentorU archives program file.

Learn how to do online presentations yourself. Even if speakers can someday appear as holograms before audiences (as in the "Holodeck" episode of Star Trek), the need for live, on-site speakers at conferences and conventions is not likely to dissipate. On-line presentations are going to become an ever-increasing share of the speaking, training, and consulting market. If you haven't already gotten your feet wet in this 21st century technology, now is the time to get started. All speakers today will benefit from becoming aware and fluent in making online presentations. (For more information, go to www.mentoru.com.)

4. Stimulate product sales.

Even if product sales already account for a fair amount of your revenues, an increasing share will be directly related to how you use the Internet and your website.

Staying in touch with past clients and audience members has never been easier. Many who didn't initially buy your products can be approached again, now that you've established a relationship via the net. You can maintain contact through regular online zines, specific e-mail communiqués (less desirable), broadcast announcements, and a variety of emerging techniques. The advocates you create as a result of your speaking engagements become prime candidates for generating repeat and enduring product sales. And, as much as you love speaking to groups, you probably also enjoy making money while you sleep.

(1147 words)

Jeff Davidson, MBA, CMC, is a popular speaker; and the award-winning author of many books, including Breathing Space: Living and Working at a Comfortable Pace in a Sped-up Society ($14.95). For a complete resource list including books, and videos cassettes, visit BSI's web site http://www.BreathingSpace.com, or send an email request to Jeff@BreathingSpace.com

Patricia Fripp CSP, CPAE is a San Francisco-based executive speech coach and award-winning professional speaker on Change, Customer Service, Promoting Business, and Communication Skills. She is the author of Get What You Want! and creator of several popular audio programs on speaking and presentation skills. Patricia is Past-President of the National Speakers Association. Meetings and Conventions magazine named Fripp "one of the country's most electrifying speakers!"

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Patricia Fripp offers one-on-one and group speech coaching for both professional and business speakers: http://www.executivespeechcoach.com

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